There used to be a timber pier on the Central waterfront. You walked on planks, boats were tied on both sides, and the sign at the entrance and it is read from right to left: "公卜", BLAKE PIER, "碼頭".
These seven photographs cover Central between 1952 and 1979: the same waterfront, the same streets, remade several times in thirty years. The buildings, signboards, vehicles and clothing are real; nothing is a reconstruction or AI-generated. The images are used under the data.gov.hk terms of use; intellectual property belongs to the Government of the Hong Kong SAR and the relevant organisations. What we sell is a reproduced print, not the original photograph or negative.
I chose these seven not because they are the most beautiful, but because each one answers the same question: what is that spot today?
1. 1964: Blake Pier, before demolition
The pier is a long covered walkway: iron columns down both sides, curved iron brackets carrying the roof, planks running all the way to the far end. Boats are tied along both sides, close against the columns.
The sign hangs over the entrance and is read from right to left: "公卜", BLAKE PIER in capitals, "碼頭". That is how signboards were set at the time — hardly any sign today is arranged that way.
Halfway down, a group of people sit resting on the planks; a man in a white shirt stands by a column on the right; others walk further down. Behind: a tall block on the left, a scaffolded tower on the right, and a crane at the top left.
Blake Pier is gone. The site is on reclaimed land now — no sea, no timber roof, no mooring lines.
2. 1976: the old General Post Office
This is a corner building: arches all along the ground floor, arched windows and balconies above, a domed turret on the roof. The word "POST OFFICE" is cut into the corner column, so no caption is needed.
The street below is busy: two trams, several cars, a bicycle (or trishaw), and plenty of pedestrians. On the left a glass-curtain tower is under construction behind scaffolding; next door a shop sign reads "SIBERIAN FUR STORE".
Today the General Post Office is at 2 Connaught Place and is the fourth generation (Same institution, different site and building.
3. 1974: the old Supreme Court and trams
A dome, a colonnade, curving tram tracks in front, and overhead tram wires across the sky. Two double-decker trams are in frame: number 141 in the middle, number 109 at the right edge.
Bottom left, a group of people is crossing the road; on the right two cars are standing. In the left distance a "Mandarin" sign is visible, and bottom left there is a "STOPPING PROHIBITED" plate.
The building still stands: 8 Jackson Road, opened in 1912, now the Court of Final Appeal (sources: Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal; LCSD). The building did not change; the traffic and the people below it changed several times over.
4. 1961: Edinburgh Place, full of parked cars
A large open area, parked solid in rows, with a wide lane left for traffic. This is the square used today for gatherings, performances and sitting — then, a car park.
In the middle stands a stone memorial, the Cenotaph. On the left is a colonial building with domes and turrets; on the right a tall block with windows set in vertical bands. Bottom left, a white ambulance is moving through; hills fill the background.
Edinburgh Place still exists. In 1962 Hong Kong City Hall opened there, on reclaimed waterfront land (This 1961 photograph shows the last stretch of time before the City Hall stood on that site.
5. 1952: the Cable & Wireless building
A five-storey building, an arcade of arches along the ground floor, arched windows and balconies above, and lettering along the roofline reading "威海 CABLE…". Next door on the right is a newer building with balconies; hills behind.
People walk along the road in front, one man in a light suit halfway across; a late-1940s saloon car stands on the right.
Arcades like this are now rare in Central. Count how many people walk under the arches and how many step out to the kerb — that distribution is how the street was actually used.
6. 1968: a shopfront buried in furniture
The shopfront is buried: old furniture (cabinets, tables, chairs), boards, bamboo baskets, bundles of bamboo and straw, buckets and basins, all stacked into a hill. Shop in front, home behind and above — the ordinary arrangement of the time.
Several signs: "美髮美容院" (hairdressing and beauty salon) in the middle, "SAN WO DRESS" on the shop to the left, "SUN WOO" painted on the wall above. Laundry hangs out upstairs.
People stand about the entrance: a woman in a white blouse and dark trousers at the kerb, a man in a singlet and striped trousers, two men sitting on the right, another walking past. Nobody looks at the camera.
In Central today, a scene like this is hard to find.
7. 1969: a shopping street after rain
This photograph is not about a landmark; it is about a street. Shops on both sides, signboards stacked layer on layer — "華美" on the left, "睡衣" and "鏡蓉" on the right, a florist's sign further down. The rain has just stopped, the road is wet enough to reflect, and the lane markings are crisp.
On the left a person walks carrying two bags; on the right someone stands in a shop doorway. Two cars are moving, a white saloon in front. Nobody is holding an umbrella — the rain has stopped, but the ground is still wet.
Shops, signs and cars have all changed at that spot since. What remains is one thing: a street with shops on both sides and people walking down the middle.
What the seven photographs add up to
Between 1952 and 1979 Central was remade several times over: the waterfront was reclaimed, the pier was demolished, the post office moved, a square turned from a car park into public space. None of it happened at once. It happened piece by piece, year by year, until one day you walked through and no longer recognised it.
The value of an old photograph is not nostalgia. It makes you ask: how long will the present version last?
Which one goes on your wall?
Seven photographs, seven places. The one people ask about most is Blake Pier before demolition in 1964 — the sign, the curved iron brackets and the boats alongside, all in one frame. One on its own, or all seven as a "seventy years of Central" wall.
See Blake Pier, 1964 (A4 or A3, optional solid wood frame)
See all seven Central photographs, 1952–1979
Related reading
Hong Kong Island in 1888, the year the Peak Tram opened
The 1889 plan of the City of Victoria
Kai Tak Airport in 1955